The German Church’s busy papal interregnum
The ‘synodal way’ juggernaut is rumbling on between popes.
During a papal interregnum, the Vatican comes to a virtual standstill, but the Church’s sacramental life continues as usual in the world’s dioceses.
.In the delicate period between popes, there is arguably an unwritten agreement that local Churches won’t press controversial issues that would typically merit the Vatican’s attention.
But the Catholic Church in Germany seems to be defying traditional expectations during an interregnum, continuing to engage boldly in the contentious matters raised during the country’s “synodal way.”
That initiative brought together the German bishops and select lay people at five assemblies between 2020 and 2023. Synodal way participants endorsed 150 pages of resolutions, calling for women deacons, a re-examination of priestly celibacy, lay preaching at Masses, a bigger lay role in selecting bishops, and a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on homosexuality.
The process triggered a series of Vatican interventions, culminating in a 2024 undertaking by the German bishops that the initiative would be developed “in accordance with the ecclesiology of Vatican Council II, the requirements of canon law, and the results of the global synod, and will subsequently be submitted to the Holy See for approval.”
What’s just happened?
Consider the following developments since Pope Francis’ death April 21.
On April 23, the German Church’s news website katholisch.de reported the publication by the German bishops’ conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics of a handout for pastoral workers on blessing couples in irregular situations and same-sex couples.
On May 2, the German bishops’ conference announced that the synodal committee — an interim body of bishops and lay people established after the synodal way — would discuss a text entitled “Respecting decisions of conscience in matters of birth control - rehabilitating wounded spouses” at its next meeting.
On May 3, German bishops’ conference chairman Bishop Georg Bätzing spoke at the German Protestant Kirchentag in Hanover, saying he was fully committed to women’s ordination in the Catholic Church. “I wish it and will do everything for it,” he reportedly said.
If it weren’t for the papal interregnum, these steps would arguably warrant Vatican attention. Let’s briefly consider each in turn.
Contradicting ‘Fiducia supplicans’?
New Beginning, a German Catholic group critical of the synodal way, argued that the handout on blessings contradicted the 2023 Vatican declaration Fiducia supplicans.
Although the handout said that “no approved liturgical celebrations or prayers are provided for the blessings,” New Beginning argued that the overall tenor of the document encouraging “a ritual practice” of blessings, while “Fiducia supplicans explicitly called for a non-ritual practice.”
The German bishops’ conference has rejected accusations that it had waited until a papal interregnum to publish the handout, which was requested by a synodal way resolution approved in 2023. Indeed, the handout was dated April 4, when Pope Francis had returned from hospital to the Vatican. Yet the document’s publication was only announced after the pope’s death.
The handout was approved by a body known as the Joint Conference, which periodically brings together representatives of the bishops’ conference and the Central Committee of German Catholics. There’s no indication whether its publication was discussed with the Vatican.
The handout was presented in an official press release merely as a recommendation from the Joint Conference “that the diocesan bishops proceed in accordance with the guidelines” it contains. That might be intended as a preemptive defense, in case the document draws Vatican scrutiny.
Challenging ‘Humanae vitae’?
At a May 9-10 meeting of Germany’s synodal committee in Magdeburg, participants will discuss an “action text” on contraception — one of the most controversial issues in the Catholic Church in the decades after the publication of the 1968 encyclical Humanae vitae.
Pope Paul VI’s encyclical reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to artificial birth control, saying “it is a serious error to think that a whole married life of otherwise normal relations can justify sexual intercourse which is deliberately contraceptive and so intrinsically wrong.”
The synodal committee text does not appear to be available online, but its title — “Respecting decisions of conscience in matters of birth control” — suggests it could be at variance with Humanae vitae.
The text might be a revised version of a draft document prepared for the synodal way, but not approved by participants. The draft, titled “Magisterial statements on conjugal love,” had its first reading in 2022 but proceeded no further.
The text called, among other things, for changes to the section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church that says: “Legitimate intentions on the part of the spouses do not justify recourse to morally unacceptable means (for example, direct sterilization or contraception).”
If the synodal committee formally adopts the action text, and the document challenges Church teaching on contraception, it would likely be setting itself on a collision course with the Vatican.
Snubbing ‘Ordinatio sacerdotalis’?
Bishop Bätzing’s declaration that he is committed to pursuing women’s ordination would seem to contradict the 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio sacerdotalis.
In the document, Pope John Paul II declared that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”
In September 2022, synodal way participants — including German bishops — passed a resolution saying: “The doctrine of Ordinatio sacerdotalis is not accepted and understood by the people of God in large parts. Therefore, the question must be addressed to the highest authority in the Church (Pope and Council) whether the teaching of Ordinatio sacerdotalis should be reviewed.”
But in 2023, the Vatican indicated it would not discuss the possibility of women priests in talks with representatives of the German bishops over the synodal way.
The Vatican cited statements by Pope Francis reiterating the Church’s established teaching and 2021 norms on delicts reserved to the Vatican’s doctrine office, which set out punishments for “attempts to confer sacred ordination on a woman.”
Therefore, Bätzing’s comments might ordinarily set off a warning light at the Vatican.
What happens next?
Much, perhaps, depends on who emerges in white from the conclave. If it is Cardinal Pietro Parolin, widely described as the front-runner, anxieties may rise among the majority of German bishops who support the synodal way’s agenda.
Parolin was one of three senior Vatican cardinals who led the pushback against aspects of the German initiative. He was said to be the signatory of a 2023 letter setting out the Vatican’s red lines for talks with bishops.
But even if the new pope has no track record of skepticism toward the synodal way, he might find the developments of the past few days eventually crossing his desk.
Why would German Catholic leaders risk souring relations with a new pope? One possible answer is that they are simply following the synodal way’s established modus operandi of establishing “facts on the ground” before Rome can react and intervene.
As Thomas Sternberg, one of the synodal way’s original co-presidents, explained in 2022, organizers used tactics from the political world, seeking to establish “processes and developments” that opened up questions previously viewed by some as closed in the Catholic world.
German Church leaders might dismiss this as a cynical interpretation, arguing that the three recent developments are unrelated to the papal interregnum and just the natural outworking of the synodal way process.
How seriously the Vatican views these matters will likely only become clear sometime after it returns to business as usual.
I'd love to see an update on this article now that we know it's Pope Leo XIV.
I really don’t understand why, if they want all that, they don’t just become Protestant?